“Jesse Jackson called on the Obama administration Monday to scrutinize the tech industry’s lack of diversity,” Wendy Koch reports for USA Today. “‘The government has a role to play’ in ensuring that women and minorities are fairly represented in the tech workforce, Jackson told a USA TODAY editorial board meeting. He said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission needs to examine Silicon Valley’s employment contracts.”
“‘There’s no talent shortage. There’s an opportunity shortage,’ he said, calling Silicon Valley’s record ‘far worse’ than many others such as car makers that have been pressured by unions,” Koch reports. “Jackson has lobbied nearly two dozen tech companies to disclose hiring data, and about a dozen have done so. The result is sobering: Men make up 62% to 70% of the staffs of Twitter, Google, Facebook and LinkedIn while whites and Asians comprise 88% to 91%, according to company data released in the last two months.”
“‘This is the next step in the civil rights movement,’ Jackson said, noting minorities represent a sizable share of consumers but not workers,” Koch reports. “He said it’s bad business not to include them. Of Twitter’s U.S. employees, only 3% are Hispanic and 5% black, but those groups along with Asian Americans account for 41% of its U.S. users. Pandora and eBay will soon release their hiring data, and Apple has said it will also do so but didn’t specify when, according to Butch Wing, a national political coordinator at the Rainbow Push Coalition, an advocacy group founded by Jackson.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What’s the logic for the demographic breakdown of electronics consumers to be echoed in the electronics company’s employment demographics? We fail to see the correlation.
Let’s change the scenario to test the soundness of Jackson’s “logic” with the following: Roughly 60% of the NBA ticket buyers are caucasian. Using Jackson’s logic, he should demand that of the five players each NBA team puts on the court, three of them should be white guys. However, the NBA instead seems to be saying that the teams should simply put the best players they possibly can in the game. After all, that’s what results in the best possible product for consumers.
So, Jackson’s “logic” is illogical. There’s no sound basis for the demographic breakdown of electronics consumers to be echoed in the electronics company’s employment demographics.
Diversity is good, but getting the absolute best would seem to be the better goal. Forced diversity carries its own set of problems. Would the group be comprised of the best-qualifed people possible or would it be designed to hit pre-defined quotas? Would some [employees], consciously or unconsciously, consider certain [employees], or even themselves, to be tokens meant to fill a quota?
This could also work in Apple’s and other company’s favor. Truly looking at qualified people from a larger pool could result in delivering different viewpoints and new ways of looking at things and tackling problems than a more homogenized [workforce] would be capable of delivering.
Regardless and of course, someday it would be nice for everyone to just be able to look at a group and only see people, not skin color and/or gender.
Related articles:
Tim Cook: Apple will release diversity data ‘at some point’ – July 9, 2014
Jesse Jackson targets tech’s lack of diversity; sends letter to Apple, Google, HP, others – March 19, 2014
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. blames Apple iPad for killing thousands of American jobs – April 16, 2011
And the ass-hat of the day award for the 1456th time goes to…..JESSE!
Dad succeeded in spawning a son cut filling his shoes admirably:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson,_Jr.
To Jesse Jackson, apparently, Asians aren’t a minority.
guess uncle jesse has never been to china if he thinks asians are a minority. apple’s market is global. that’s the rainbow coalition’s problem. vision through a soda straw. at least it as rainbow stripes.
diversity by the numbers is a game to keep the downtrodden riled up. if you have competency, you don’t need a “quota” boost.
Asians value education and productively advancing themselves. They don’t need Jesse.
I want to know who’s going to investigate why there’s no white guys playing basketball! Maybe because the best are out on the floor. Give this race-baiting shit up already.
I think there are other problems that need attention than that stupid crap….
Eternal perpetual babbler
I wish Jesse Jackson would read “Please Stop Helping Me” and realize that all these heavy handed, top down tactics have hurt the African American’s community to stand on its own.
Lol really? Did it say blacks were better under slavery too, under their compassionate masters who took care of their every need? Please.
g, spot on….
But did it say Jesse freed the slaves?
No (you just couldn’t find another way to represent the White Left).
Can’t wait to see the comments on this one…
Comments? Pavlov’s dogs. I’ve seen enough.
Nice take MDN.
Jesse is a racist.
Yup.
The Number One Most Racist Man in America.
Guess he is a little short of cash years later after shaking down Denny’s, et al.
Poverty pimp.
Jackson is a race hustler, looking to make a quick buck! He and sharpton maintain their lifestyles from this practice. The country is going to hell in a hand basket!
More accurately, he is a shakedown artist. This was well-documented in Kenneth Timmerman’s book “Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson”.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/shakedown/id593444684?mt=11
This man is one of the problems with Black America. However, he has been appointed spokesman for Black causes by the powers to be.
There us definitely more tech companies can do to increase minority employment. I worked in that industry for years and found it was a continual struggle to get more emphasis on minority outreach and hiring.
Lack of diversity? Now we need to have quotas on who designs and engineers our products? How about hiring the best of the best and forget about color! If 100 blacks are the best of the best, hire them! If 100 American Indians are the best of the best, hire them! If 100 Asians are the best of the best, hire them! If 100 whites are the best of the best, hire them! Jesse Jackson the Adulterer’s very reason for being depends on race-baiting. He needs to STHU!
You are exactly right, iMaki. Jessie Jackson merely noted that the world hasn’t paid him any attention for a month or so and wanted the limelight back himself. Everyone should just ignore him.
Clearly, young black kids tend to gravitate towards different interests than white and asian kids. Those interests prime them for their utility later in life. Ergo, today we have a disproportionate representation of blacks in the NBA. No one in their right mind complains that the NBA is biased against whites.
If the black community doesn’t like the fact that too few people of color are in software engineers in Silicon Valley, they can go out onto the streets and drag their kids off the basketball hoops and sit them down in front of books on technology.
Taking Jackson’s logic to its logical conclusion, the federal government should investigate the obvious racial profiling going on with criminal trials related to multi-million-dollar corporate embezzlement cases. Balding, middle-aged, overweight white males are overwhelmingly disproportionately represented amongst those convicted of that crime. This can only be the product of racism.
I was treated badly today.
MDN are you saying that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country that could impact these statistics. That take is probably worse than your “Man from Harlem” comment. People like you create people like Jackson.
Where, exactly, did MacDailyNews say “that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country?” I just searched MDN for “Man from Harlem.” No results. People like you are fscking liars.
Search a little harder idiot. It’s there.
I read that “Harlem” comment. Nothing racist whatsoever. The story was about race that’s all. You can talk frankly about race and not be a “racist,” you know.
So, care to answer my first question or will you continue ducking it, Mr. Strawman?
Where, exactly, did MacDailyNews say “that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country?”
Sorry, with *some* people, you can frankly discuss race and not be a “racist.”
They see racism where it doesn’t exist. I take it being Asian don’t fall under their definition of “minority”.
You’re wasting your time. You are correct, MDN said nothing of the kind about black engineers. People like Mr. Jackson and our friend Sceptical here know that fear is a much better weapon than skill. When companies hire the best talent, they get superior products. Artificial targets and quotas are feel good policies, but companies don’t brag about their hiring policies, they brag about products and services they sell. In my own little business, even I have a hard time finding qualified talent. One would think with so much reading and writing one must do on the web, the country would be getting smarter, but the opposite is happening. One kid came in to apply for an entry level opening and couldn’t even fill out the application form. The paper form confused him. He asked if I had an online form he could type, and not write in. The country has a terrible lack of skills problem, and that leads to a lack of talent problem.
LOL, MDN is that you?
Again, Mr Strawman, where, exactly, did MacDailyNews say “that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country?”
What’s the logic for the demographic breakdown of electronics consumers to be echoed in the electronics company’s employment demographics?
There is no logic.
Jesse jackson is an extortionist, the father of a convict currently serving time in prison, and, at the point of being married for 38 years, also fathered a child out of wedlock with a woman who works for him and paid her $400,000 out of his Rainbow Push Coalition.
There is a special sub-dungeon in hell for the likes of Jackson, a man who routinely sells out his own people in order to to line his own pockets.
More info via Apple’s iBooks Store: Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson by Kenneth R. Timmerman
As I recall, Jackson got the NHRA to pay annual *protection* money to the Rainbow Push Coalition because Jackson was accusing the NHRA of racism because—at the time—there were no black race car drivers in the Daytona 500 and similar races.
Apparently the NHRA feared that Jackson could make a stink about how white men in cigar-smoke-filled rooms conspired to keep blacks from winning races… or something, something, something.
The NHRA, apparently fearing that Jackson could make sponsors take flight, made a generous, annual “donation” to Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition. Jackson thought that to be a pleasant outcome and let the NHRA be.
I wonder who else pays protection money to Jackson.
Jesse is a member of the Counsil of Foreign Relations CFR, a globalist-new world order-UN loving organization that has traitors
All over the government
Google for the membership, you’ll be surprised who’s there.
Not really Apple news. Too many political stories on here these days. I just see a wasted article that does little but stoke political and racial separatism on this site. I would rather you publish nothing than loosely related news. I use Apple products and often surf here to see tech news related to new products offered by Apple. Every article that mentions electronics or even Apple by name isn’t really “Mac” daily news, not is it news worthy. If you didn’t believe Jackson’s claims had merit then why bother giving them space on your site. Perhaps you just needed him to open his mouth so you could put your “spin” on it. Write your own articles then offer them for critic and review instead of this. Disappointed in MDN, grow up.
*nor
It is really Apple-related news. Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this month promised to release diversity data. Just because it makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t make it “not really Apple news.” Stop confusing your personal feelings with what belongs here or doesn’t. Stop shooting the messenger. If you have something constructive to add, add it. Otherwise, STFU and Stop wasting everyone’s time with your poorly-written tripe.
“If you didn’t believe Jackson’s claims had merit then why bother giving them space on your site”
Because MDN is to page clicks what Jesse Jackson is to race baiting.
It’s here because it involves Apple. It doesn’t get much simpler.
So you are saying you have no interest in the race baiting shakedown artist going after Apple where the big bucks live?
Critical think, much?
Jackson is a joke. Look there’s no high tech company that wouldn’t hire the best and brightest regardless of skin color or race.
If there’s any proof at ALL that someone qualified was passed over solely due to race then that’s another story.
But that’s not what’s happening. Jackson somehow believes that there’s a magic percentage that must be reached.
That’s not how it works. That’s not how any if this works.
I think there should be more diversity in everything too. I always seem to get the short end of the stick in almost everything I deal with. I used to like Ol’ Jesse, but he sold out long ago. He should shut his trap, and let us figure it out oirselves. He is a fool.
Some of the players in this topic could be clearer on definitions and goals.
The various goals are best products, happy consumers, large employment, good profit and employment for the qualified labor pool, plus one not mentioned: making sure good people get good qualifications.
Jesse Jackson is about and for Jesse Jackson- always has been and probably always will be. Enough about him, the issue is more important.
Go to any College of Engineering at any reputable school in America. It is diverse ethnically- far from a majority of whites- but a sausage fest by a considerable margin. There is no shortage of women with the intellectual capability to study engineering, they just for the most part choose not to. That is not the fault of the Tech industry and is not an indication of bias, discrimination or other nefarious activity.
A legitimate query would be to say how can we encourage more women and people of certain groups not well represented in tech to major in engineering. That is not accusatory but rather seeks to encourage wider participation in the field. The plain and simple fact is that programs already exist to encourage students to pursue such studies, they just do not get much attention in the wider society.
Here is a good place for background:
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/cwsem/
There are larger issues that contribute to the correlation being made here. Education and immigration are just two topics this discussion covers. To give a title to the elitist attitude on display would not be thankful for being part of a society where discussions should be welcomed.
Ridiculous take MDN. To my knowledge there is no history or claim that there is or has been discriminatory practices in selecting NBA players. Great athletes get a shot regardless. There has been, however, a long history of discrimination in recruitment and hiring practices across just about every industry served by corporate entities (large and small). Do I think the President needs to weigh in? No. That’s the job of activists like Jesse and maybe administrators from Universities where minority engineers matriculate. Is it a valid concern? Yes, but the demographic make up of the engineers need not perfectly mirror the consumers that buy the products.
“The demographic make up of the engineers need not perfectly mirror the consumers that buy the products.”
In other words, you agree with MDN’s “ridiculous” take.
And, yes, there was racism in basketball as there was/is everywhere else:
Harry “Bucky” Lew. Chuck Cooper. Earl Lloyd. Harold Hunter. Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton. Hank DeZonie. These six men are the African- American legacy of professional basketball. It was these gentlemen who fought the bitter racism that now allows the Kobe’s and LeBron’s to play in the NBA.
Jesse Jackson is nothing but a race peddling poverty pimp. He wants racial tension to exist because without it, he has no way of making money. This man is rich because he constantly stirs up hatred between blacks and whites. He is nothing but a menace to society, and he should be ignored.
While he’s at it why doesn’t that miserable publicity sucking SOB encourage more blacks to get college educations in engineering instead of hip-hop, sports, family abandonment and wife/girlfriend beatings? He needs a little talk with Dr. Bill Cosby and get set straight. Cosby is a real clued-in mensch as Jackson is a pulpit beating fool who never attempts to identify the real problems, doing more damage than good.
Jesse Jackson is an extortionist, along with Al Sharpton. If Obama pays any attention to this JERK, he is dumber than I thought he was.
guess what? He’s dumber than you thought.
Racism exists everywhere. It is not limited to tech or any other industry. Nor is it limited to what you would typically call race.
Jesse jackson has succeeded. He has made you all make a comment about an issue that exists. It’s okay, he can take it, it’s his job.
Your job is to quit hiding behind Internet snack and realize that the world we live in becomes more and more divisive all the time.
BTW- while not a big supporter of Rev. jackson, you are all his intellectual inferior.
Damn few people that self serving.
Sticking my hand into the inevitable hornet’s nest of someone’s creation:
Your job is to quit hiding behind Internet snack and realize that the world we live in becomes more and more divisive all the time.
The World is already the definition of diversity. Part of the problem is that in many locales, that isn’t clearly obvious. It’s also sadly standard operating procedure for kids to NOT escape the locale or thought realm/culture where they were raised, in order to see the world’s vast diversity first hand. As a result, most people live with limited perspective as well as distorted views about the world in their inner world, which sadly we all perceive to be our ‘reality’.
As for the self-destructive aspects of some parts of the African-American culture: It’s incredibly depressing to me and of course those living in it. It never helps to simply say: ‘Culture! Heal Thyself!’ Derailing self-destructive behavior and leading people to self-creative, positive behavior is what’s required. But without kidnapping kids out of destructive environments, I don’t know how to start except by doing my best to express respect to everyone I meet.
[Exception: Willfully hateful and ignorant people. I can’t stand them. I just want them out of the scenario. I’m not brahman enough yet. Sorry.] 😕
I would argue that nothing has harmed the so called “African-American” culture than the inherent racism found in progressive ideology. 50 years of liberal garbage, making people believe that something is owed to them, telling them that they cannot succeed unless there are quotas, set asides, and so on. This has only led to a state of arrested development in the black community, and zombie like devotion to the Democratic party.
From the overt racism of the antebellum South to the modern smiley face condescending racism of modern liberalism, blacks have suffered at the hands of the Democratic party.
You can follow the degeneration of the culture from Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqjZ0KZCa0
“I’ll have those naggers voting Democratic for the Next 200 years.” – Lyndon Johnson
I watched the video. Two nightmares in one. Incredible. I want to steal one of her kids and get them out of that mess. They look like great kids.
” … doing my best to express respect to everyone I meet.”
Yeah, right.
Your first response to my first post, “I hate you.”
Have little time for hypocritical practitioners such as yourself.
Oh wait, wave the magic wand and manufacture an exception … hardy har, har.
Speak for yourself.
So you know the IQ of everyone commenting on this forum and double checked before you posted that we are ALL inferior to the poverty pimp?
Sometime tonight I will stop laughing.
Clearly there are not a lot of Asian basketball players in the NBA. As far as I know, it’s just Jeremy Lin.
I hope Jackson steps up and fights for all minorities to have an equal shot at employment in all fields.
Oh yeah, I forgot. He only ‘fights’ for Blacks and Hispanics. Apparently, Asians aren’t a minority in the United States. I guess they have their sh*t together.
I want to see Jackson’s proof that it is not a talent shortage. I’m not saying that any race or gender lacks the ability to get a degree in a technical field, but articles I’ve read recently lead me to believe that women and minorities are still under-represented in technical degree programs. Tech companies can/will/should hire those who are trained for the job. This issue needs to first be addressed at the education level.
The wrong person was assassinated. Too bad it was Martin Luther King Jr.. Instead, we’re stuck with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
You can be rest assured that if you need someone to stir up some race issue, you’ll find one of those two available. I think they are on some kind of rotation.
Hey Jesse, if your worried so much about diversity, then get your’s and Sharpton’s sorry ass over to Foxxcon. It’s nothing but a sea of Mr. Spock hair cuts in there.
?! I’m a diversity-in-everything fanatic. But no way do I support hiring people for anything JUST because they’re the downtrodden-minority-of-the-week.
Quality and qualifications. THOSE are the goals! I’m constantly doing my personal best locally to encourage and assist anyone with talent and potential skills. I also wish I could throttle a few irresponsible parents and raise their children for them. I dream.
What do you know. We agree.
Thus speaks someone who has never been a member of any “workforce” — so far as I know, he’s never held a job as a full-time employee of an employer.
Jackson……… A jackass.
I really hate putting people in containers like this, but If Jesse Jackson insists – most of my black friends that are in the more studied professions are doctors or lawyers, for whatever reasons, they don’t give a shit about being engineers. I really wish he’d just go away. Trying my best to think of a time he was relevant, or anything but a trouble maker, or legitimately helpful to anyone, and coming up empty.
I don’t care what Jackson says. It’s far better today ( if more blacks means better ) than it was 20 years ago.
There are many reasons that blacks do not enter engineering or most of the sciences, math, engineering, and technology fields, not the least of which the fact that there are such opportunities is not made clear early on in education.
From the moment children speak English, they should be indoctrinated into the idea that there are opportunities out there, and that (if I might borrow from Apple’s greatest commercial) the only limits will be the size of your ideas and the degree of your dedication.
Instead in public schools we are taught nothing but political left claptrap about how limited we are due to racism. When black parents try to get their kids out of public schools through voucher systems, along comes someone like Obama to shoot it down. Nope. Can’t have that.
Opportunity, achievement, freedom, Americanism… these concepts should be drilled into kids. Instead they’re learning to be tolerant of Islam.
To look at this issue seriously instead of being partisan fanboys regurgitating talking points, it’s worth looking at what the situation is, and why it is this way.
I’ve working in Silicon Valley for a long time and in IT in another state before that. I’ve never encountered hiring bias against race, sex, religion or anything else. This area is extremely progressive and talented employees far to rare and valuable.
It’s a bit ironic that this issue comes up as much as the counter issue of outsourcing to India and visas for India (and elsewhere).
The reality of the situation though is that there are far fewer female engineers as well as far fewer engineers of various racial backgrounds (as well as other specialized tech workers).
There’s not some hidden pool of unemployed female/black engineers being turned away from jobs.
Instead of looking at the numbers at Apple, Microsoft, Intel, etc…, it’s worth looking at the numbers at Stanford, MIT, Harvard, etc…
You’ll see that there has always been an equal correlation.
Now, if we decide we want to do something about any of this, the place to start is with education, and the place to start within education is early on where kids are forming their paths.
From here we see girls still being pushed away from math and the sciences as well as being pulled into other fields at the same time.
For blacks and other statistically lower-income minorities, what we see is that since schools are primarily locally funded those living in poorer conditions will replicate a cycle of:
low income -> poor schools/education -> low income
Again, it’s a question of *if* we want to do something about this.
If we do, looking at this as a racial issue misses the point. If the cycle of poverty->education continues, and grows, it affects the entire country, not just any race.
What is needed is a system to help ensure that education across the nation meets a minimum threshold with those capable from any school being encouraged to pursue various paths and given the opportunity (financially) to do so.
It would be like giving whites males basketballs and courts to practice on all day. They (most) already have them and they (most) have so many other things. For lower-income blacks (and other minorities) they don’t have much of anything else nor as many other opportunities. For many of them, the way out is to become a pro athlete or choose another career that doesn’t demand much in terms of having an education.
What he means by, “diversity” is taking over jobs by black ignorant homeless people. Have you flown Delta lately? Awful employees all in the name of diversity.
Rev. Jackson, face facts of business, diversity has nothing to do with it. Knowledge, skills, education are what are important. Regardless of ones ethnicity when you do not have the skill set you will not be hired.
Do you have the skills to support servers, software, write code? If not should you be hired for a tech job? You sir, are appallingly ignorant or stupid.
Liberals care about intentions, Conservative care about results.
From here in Chicago we know about the Budweiser distributorship Jesse extorted for his son. Its called the Chicago way, Jesse style. With Jr. in jail you think he would be as quiet as a Operation Push church mouse. Remember all the gun fire in Chicago is caused by no high tech jobs. Call out the guard, Jesse. More important things to worry about in CHItown.
I saw a report on how tech companies can do better and I believe that it is true: Make sure that applicants get an interview and get considered even if they don’t fit the stereotype of a techie. They might have talent even if they don’t have the PhD. They might be good coders even if they don’t wear the same kind of clothes or sneakers as stereotype coders.
Sad. Jesse spreads the unfortunate stereotype that all black people are retard loudmouths who have no idea how to do real work and try to make a living by complaining all day. There are talented, motivated black people out there Jesse, so why would anyone want to listen to you?
I have no idea what you are talking about in your first paragraph. You say you believe it is true and then write a bunch of things that make absolutely no sense. Are you writing a fictional novel? Seriously what are these stereotypes of techies you are talking about? You obviously have NO idea about the industry. I would be willing to bet that the tech industry might in fact have the LEAST amount of discrimination of any industry. As other’s (who actually have first hand experience) have pointed out, any techn company will bend over backwards to get ANY talented candidate. These people are rare and extremely valuable.
I think your beef is with the talent pool that is available. Which gets into the actual root of the problem. If you want to solve the problem get its source. The US desperately needs more people enrolling in science and engineering programs.
I want Jesse Jackson to look into the lack of diversity in the NAACP.
Gender ratio of engineers completing bachelor degree
Male:Female. 5:1
Percentages to complete bachelors engineering degree
Caucasian 63.4%
African American 31.2%
Latino 52.3%
Asian 72.8%
African American Representation in Engineering
Undergrads 13%
bachelors degree 5%
Engineering workforce 5%
Data for years 2008-2010
The problem isn’t in the hiring practices. There’s lots of reasons things are as they are, but the tech industry companies are hiring all the graduates. Global outsourcing of engineering is becoming an issue more than race or gender.
Tech doesn’t hire women and minorities. They hire white and Asian men. Are white and Asian men ALWAYS only the best? Tech is in the Lilly white wealthy suburbs and away from poor urban areas except in San Francisco. While it’s a good excuse to say only white and Asian men are the best, tech is NOT in Detroit, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Chicago’s South Side, or anywhere where even the white people are poor. Tech is about money. Blacks and Latinos are not where money is. Institutional racism thrives.
Read my comment above. They hire all that are there to be hired
LOL you have no idea how hard it is to find talent engineers. Companies will open offices in other regions of the country just to try and tap into local talent pools. They’ll do that but they won’t hire a woman or minority. Right… If you could point me in the direction of all of these talented, brilliant engineers who are currently unemployed… perhaps send me their resumes please.
Dude is it seriously that hard to understand the root of the problem? The only possible reason why tech is not in those areas you listed is racism? It has nothing to do with the lack of top schools in those areas? Why would I open an office in an area where there is not a large pool of talent available? Instead of wasting time pretending there is racism in tech, focus on why there are no talent pools in those areas. Of course that’s assuming you actually want to solve the problem. Perhaps you are like Jesse and you benefit from the problem existing.
Soooo…roughly 83% of the US is not black. Going by JJ’s formula…the NBA is racist.
Got it.